The Russellville Democrat. [volume] (Russellville, Ark.) 1875-1898, 1887-11-23

- 1i5u xEu Xe A-*ft5---H ~ ItEr Sti.t1 3s'
and Gold rnsn Every Year.
0resof tie fnust uupreten tidus buildings
% Wall street, says .t]i6i New YORK Com
sssa 5ee hS nIIs s ss s.ssss
Of rdther unaier the Wing 81 the sub-tfeHss
,ury. it, aplqin, old -fash ivHed stone frppt
gives Up token Of the heard ~ sold wealth
within. Ono OF tho most unassuming and
,aifabIe gentlemen on Wall street Is. An
drew III. Mason tho bnpetFhtAhdefft Of tbs
assay officsa 0fie w6nad liarsliy think to
see him that moro gold and silver passes
through his hands each year than Is ham
died be any other man In the Unised
States, or for that matter in tho world.
The assay Office Is the funnel through
which the precious metals Of the country
pass before they enter the commercial
world. From every quarter OF the United
States daily shipments are received of
gold, silver and the baser metals that
cling so tenaciously to the moro valuable
products, and arc here melted, separated,
refined and marked with the all-im-
portant stamp OF the United States.
NEARLY all of the gold sent here from
foreign Countries said Mr. Mason, "comes
to this office. Much of it comes 80 20 tii..
rect from the steamers even before Il goes
into the hands of consignees. All of this
gold is melted and cast into bars, except
Spanish and Mexican doubloons and
American coins, only the lightweight
pieces of which find their way into the
melting crucibles."
"Do you make no exceptions either of
English bars or bars marked with your
own stampsvp
mo, English, French, and even our own
bars, together with all foreign coins, arc
subject to the same treatment, first as
sayed and then cast into new bars and
stamped to indicate their fineness and
value.v
why do you resmelt American bars
that already bear the assayer's stamp"
because we believe it to be the safer
course to pursue II obviates any chance
of fraud or deception, and foreign mer-
chants are better satisfied when they know
that the same bar Is never reissued from
this office"
ssDo other Governments resmelt our bars
afsosv
"Not always. II they did we should not
receive so many Of our own issue back.
England resmelts q good many,i but in
France they generally accept them as
they are"
'sBut is not the cost of resmelting and
the loss consequent upon the operation
heavy?n
son the contrary, it is very slight. The
cost for resmelting, testing and casting
into new standard bars is only one-tenth
of one per cent. an ounce, while the loss Is
infinitesimal.n
While Superintendent Mason was talk
ing heavy drag backed up to the door of
the assay Office and commenced to unload
great silver bricks and little, heavy, IRON
bound boxes containing gold. The re-
porter followed the boxes into the receiv-
ing room, where they were opened after a
great deal of trouble. The contents con-
sisted Of gold bars, old gold coin and, in
one instance, tin box Of gold dust. All
of this precious material was taken out
and weighed on scales so delicately ball
anced that grain OF dust would disturb
the balance. Each lot was dumped into a
separate box to await its turn for the test
by fire as to its purity before it again did
duty as q measure of value.